The Gibbs paradox and the distinguishability of identical particles

Identical classical particles are distinguishable. This distinguishability affects the number of ways W a macrostate can be realized on the microlevel, and from the relation S=k ln W leads to a nonextensive expression for the entropy. This result is usually considered incorrect because of its inconsistency with thermodynamics. It is sometimes concluded from this inconsistency that identical particles are fundamentally indistinguishable and that quantum mechanics is indispensable for making sense of this inconsistency. In contrast, we argue that the classical statistics of distinguishable particles and the resulting nonextensive entropy function are perfectly acceptable from both a theoretical and an experimental perspective. The inconsistency with thermodynamics can be removed by taking into account that the entropy concept in statistical mechanics is not completely identical to the thermodynamical one. We observe that even identical quantum particles are in some cases distinguishable, and conclude that quantum mechanics is irrelevant to the Gibbs paradox.